In 1998, the stars of the Classic Disney Shorts returned to starring in regular cartoon shorts. But rather than being made to play right before selected movies in theaters (although a few of them actually premiered there anyway), these new cartoons were going to be shown alongside other Disney cartoons like Recess and Pepper Ann. Mickey Mouse and the gang's new show, titled Mickey MouseWorks, made its debut on ABC's One Saturday Morning programming block on May 1, 1999. It followed a Three Shorts format, with each five-minute short starring one of Mickey's gang, and even mixing characters who rarely, if ever, interacted in the older cartoons (i.e. Mickey taking care of Donald Duck's nephews or Mickey trying to impress Minnie Mouse when he thinks she's leaving him for José Carioca). Sometimes, the characters starred in newly-made installments of the Silly Symphonies, in which the stories were set entirely to music and without dialogue. Once per Episode, there would also be one or two 90-second gag shorts with the following umbrella titles:

Mickey to the Rescue: Mickey breaks into Pete's not-at-all-secret hideout to rescue Minnie from the traps within.

In addition, MouseWorks also occasionally ran shorts that ran twice the usual length, dubbed Mouse Tales, in which the characters performed classic stories they hadn't already done adaptations for.

Reception to Mickey MouseWorks was generally mixed among the fans of the characters. There were folks who believed the show was indeed a worthy Spiritual Successor to the theatrical shorts it was based on, but there were others who complained that maybe Mickey and friends' new adventures were trying too hard to be likethe competition, and that the good things that came up were just rehashed from the original shorts. It is generally agreed, though, that the series' finest episode was the double-length short "Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot", a loose adaptation of a Floyd Gottfredson storyline from the Mickey Mouse comic strip.

Regardless of what everyone thought of MouseWorks, it received a major Retooling in the middle of its third season. On January 13, 2001, Mickey MouseWorks was replaced with a new series titled Disney's House of Mouse, and this time, the cartoon shorts were being presented with a framing device.

A recurring plot thread to House of Mouse was the threat of the nasty landlord, Pete. He intends to close and tear the House down (what he intends to construct in its place is never mentioned), but this is a goal he cannot obtain because his contract states that he cannot tear the House down so long as Mickey and the gang have an audience to perform for. Thus, in almost every episode he's in, Pete hatches some Evil Scheme to drive the audience away, ranging from sabotaging the entertainment to contaminating the air conditioning with Pumbaa's fart-gas.

52 episodes of House of Mouse were produced, but only half of them were aired on One Saturday Morning before it was revamped and replaced with ABC Kids in September 2002. As a result, House of Mouse was taken off of ABC and moved to the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, where the remaining 26 episodes aired alongside the previously aired ones as well. During the show's run, a few MouseWorks shorts were packaged with some of the classic shorts onto video compilations, but had their title cards cut out and replaced with newly-made framing animation, and were advertised as two direct-to-video movies - Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains.

An Aesop: This is made the subject of the song performed in "Thanks to Minnie".

Animation Bump: While all the episodes are well animated, some are animated somewhat more intricately than the others - particularly in the fluidity of the characters' motions and more detailed coloring (most noticeable in Mickey's scenes on stage, where the light from the spotlight is much better incorporated in his coloring in some episodes than others). Good examples of these are "Pete's House Of Villains," and "Timon and Pumbaa."

Animated Actors: Implied; the characters don't exactly act the same way in the House of Mouse as they do in their films, especially the villains. (The worst thing Jafar does is turn Donald into a literalLarge Ham). For the shorts, it's zig-zagged: some are presented as things the characters acted in, others are presented as things that actually happened.

Invoked in one episode, where all the cartoons are stolen. The next cartoon is presented as one Mickey and Goofy went and made on the spot.

Badass Crew: "Pete's House of Villains" among other episodes proves that the House's staff - Mickey (the host), Donald (the maitre'd), Goofy (head waiter), Minnie (behind-the-scenes runner), Daisy (clerk), Horace (tech), Clarabelle (entertainment), and Gus (the chef) - is this when they're in their prime.

Carnivore Confusion: Mickey states that one of the rules is "No guests eating other guests". Pumbaa then makes Timon spit out Jiminy Cricket.

Casting Gag: Mike, the sentient microphone announcer for the show, was voiced by the late Rod Roddy, who was well known as an announcer, specifically on The Price Is Right.

In the opening titles, Baloo and Little John are always seen talking, a reference to how both shared a voice actor in Phil Harris. Little John is actually an Expy of Baloo meant to cash in on the latter's popularity.

Catch Phrase: Black-and-white character Dennis the Duck's catchphrase is "Have a sandwich!" In-universe it's famous enough that Daisy asked him to write it in her autograph book.

The House segments are nothing more than framing devices for recycled Mickey MouseWorks shorts. An example of Tropes are not Bad, though, because the House segments are entertaining in their own way and sometimes have important plots, classic Disney cartoons are occasionally shown as well as MouseWorks shorts, and a good number of the MouseWorks shorts used never aired before on Mickey MouseWorks.

Two more controversial and straight examples would be the direct-to-video movies Mickey's House of Villains and Snowed in at the House of Mouse.

Comically Small Demand: In one episode Donald volunteers to steal "the lamp" for Jafar. After Donald's ordeal in the prop room to get Aladdin's lamp, Jafar tells him that that isn't the right one and what he really wanted was the lamp in Mickey's dressing room (with the clock gizmo and the fringe along the shade). Which Mickey is happy to hand over.

Couch Gag: Before the show's opening starts, Mike the Microphone usually says something that may relate to the episode about to be shown. For example, he said "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Disney's House of Mouse!" before the episode that featured Super Goof.

Does He Have A Sister?: Lumiere asks this of Daisy when she says she's dating Donald, whom she describes as "the third candelabra" (her mispronunciation of "caballero").

Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Jafar agrees to help repair the House of Mouse building when Mickey offers him Agrabah as a reward. What he didn't tell him was that it would be an Agrabah snow globe.

Distracted by the Sexy: Invoked by Mickey in "Clarabelle's Big Secret" when he tries to keep Clarabelle from revealing the secret she has to tell everyone by showing her Horace Horsecollar striking a manly pose while wearing just an undershirt and briefs.

Flanderization: Quite a bit for several of the movie characters (the most obvious one being Gaston, who's basically turned into a living Running Gag), mostly thanks to the many Shout Outs to their original movies.

Furry Reminder: Two gags involve Mickey acquiring more mouse-like traits such as drinking out of giant water bottle and being asked if he needs a run on his exercise wheel. Another involves Donald wading through a flooded House of Mouse, quacking indiscriminately and tripping face first into the water as if he were a wild duck looking for food.

Go-Karting with Bowser: Both the heroes and villains from the various Disney movies wine and dine at the House of Mouse. Hades even single-handedly prevents it from going under at one point by staying during a heatwave, ensuring they have an audience.

The first Halloween episode focuses on none other than Hades.

Jafar also gets a chance to save it. When Daisy fails epically at magic and makes it disappear, Jafar shows up (he was late, which is why Daisy tried to do magic in the first place to replace his act) and sings a cover of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.

Hand or Object Underwear: In "House of Scrooge", Mickey Mouse is forced to use his face logo from his 1930's cartoons to cover himself when Scrooge takes away his clothes on the grounds that they are too expensive for him to wear.

Held Gaze: In the episode Max's Embarrassing Date, Max and Roxanne stare into each other's eyes before they Almost Kiss, wherein Minnie interrupts them.

There's actually a main reason why she had to be shown in her queen dress at the end of the film: her princess outfit is actually too "adult" to be shown in a child-friendly show by Disney. Too bad Cree Summer's not there to voice her.

Hypocritical Humor: Max has a hard time driving a car and narrowly avoids crashing into another car, whose occupant screams "Watch it, you maniac!" The other driver? Cruella de Vil.

Implausible Deniability: Pete does this in the first episode when he denies being responsible for stealing the cartoons and tying up Horace Horsecollar. He says that the rope used to tie Horace up isn't his when it clearly says that it belongs to him, he fits his hands over the fingerprints while claiming that they aren't his fingerprints, and he says that he doesn't know Horace Horsecollar right before saying "Hi, Horace" after Horace says hello to him.

Several of the guests and/or episode centric characters, particularly the ones related to Donald Duck (Baby Shelby, Humphrey, the Aracuan Took a Level in Jerkass for this show, etc). Pain and Panic have an episode to themselves that specifically plays up how jerkish they are.

Most of the villains, though they're generally willing to be amiable. Sometimes. Just make sure you don't tick them off.

Mortimer Mouse is also rather mean. The lengths he'll go to make a fool out of Mickey and steal his girlfriend Minnie border on Hate Sink.

Having had enough of Pete's criticism, Mickey and the entire staff quit and get Pete to try to run the house for a night. Pete changes the name to "Pete's House of Villains", employs some of the Disney Villains, and things are off to an auspicious start, but gradually things fall apart and Pete begs for Mickey to take the House back.

In another episode Max keeps talking down to Goofy the ‎head waiter for having the easiest and least important job compared to Mickey and Donald. He learns the hard way that from Goofy's POV House of Mouse is a Crème de la crème restaurant with some of the most dangerous villains as regulars.

Limited Wardrobe: The characters dress the same almost every single night (except in the Halloween episodes, of course).

Musical Nod: A surprisingly large amount of them hidden in the background music - a great example: in the episode "Ladies Night" Minnie is the host instead of Mickey. When she comes out, the band plays an instrumental of "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo" that is easy to miss under the dialogue and sound effects. Plus, nearly every musical number in the show is a redone version of an older Disney song.

My Hair Came Out Green: In one short, Minnie Mouse accidentally dyes Pluto's fur purple after mistaking a bottle of purple dye for shampoo. She then tries to find ways to get the purple dye off, including painting the dog with a can of "Pluto-colored Paint" (which is the same shade of orange as Pluto's fur).

Mythology Gag: Many jokes with the guests are references to their respective movies. There are also several jokes that reference the past works of Mickey and the rest of the staff, and there are a ton of gags hidden in the music.

Seriously. Just try and count the number of Steamboat Willie jokes throughout the series. Or the number of sailor suit gags about Donald. Or the times Pete is either related to piracy or called "Peg-Leg."

In Pete's House of Villains Ariel holds up a sign that reads: "Someone stole my voice again".

Negative Continuity: Guests at the House of Mouse aren't restricted to one specific form. Simba regularly flip-flops between his cub and adult forms, and Ariel makes appearances in both human and mermaid form. Plus all the many villain guests that died in their movies.

And Jafar can drive the Cave of Wonders, in spite of the original Cave of Wonders neither moving nor letting Jafar in.

Plus, for any Beauty and the Beast characters, they all appear as their enchanted selves — for example, the Beast is still a beast and Lumiere and Cogsworth are still a candelabra and a clock, respectively.

In the first episode after Minnie said "The crowd is turning ugly.", Beast in his human form turns back into a beast.

In one episode, Figaro is shown as Minnie's pet in the same show where his usual owner Geppetto is a regular.

Never My Fault: When Daisy finds out that Donald paid Mickey to put her act on stage, she quits because that's not how she wants to get her break; Donald responds to this by blaming Mickey for getting her mad at him.

Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers for Mickey's House of Villains would lead you to believe the film revolves around Mickey battling the Disney Villains over the House of Mouse. The "film" is 90% shorts and the remaining 10% is spent regarding the villains' plot, which is mostly a Villain Song and a brief duel at the end.

Parental Hypocrisy: Occurs in "Max's New Car", when Goofy refuses to give his son Max a car because he is not responsible, but is revealed to have been a rather reckless driver himself when he was younger once Max shows footage from the short Motor Mania.

Parody Commercial: Almost every episode ended with Mic performing one of these, announcing the fake product which had sponsored that particular episode. For example, there was "Disney Magic", a spritz which was guaranteed to make even the grouchiest person smile; the product was then demonstrated, transforming Grumpy the dwarf into Happy the dwarf.

Punch Clock Villain: Most of the Disney baddies appear to be these, at least in this show. When they're at the club, they're off the clock and — for the most part — are just relaxing.

And even when they do do something bad, it doesn't even compare to the atrocities they committed in their respective films (for example, Jafar in the Mickey's House of Villains film merely uniting the other villains to take over the House of Mouse when in Aladdin, he tried to have the title character drowned.

Puppy-Dog Eyes: Max uses these in order to finally get a car from Goofy.

Read the Fine Print: It is repeatedly stated that as long as Mickey and company put on a show, they get to keep the club.

Real Person Cameo: At one point, during a song by Ludwig Von Drake about the guests in the club, Roy E. Disney gets mentioned and even appears as an animated character.

Reality Warper: Many characters can do this on a single gag basis as long it's funny, but none surpass the Aracuan for sheer physics and causality breakage.

Rebus Bubble: Mickey does this to figure out that Mortimer has played him for a sap in "Mickey and the Culture Clash".

"Gone Goofy," "Not-So Goofy" and "Dining Goofy" all have the basic premise of Goofy being too... well... goofy, and the rest of the staff deciding something needs to be done about his clumsiness, only for their plan to succeed too well and for them to want Goofy back (or in Donald's case, to tolerate him a bit more) by the end. Likewise, both "Clarabelle's Christmas List" and "Clarabelle's Big Secret" use the plot of Clarabelle having a secret gossip bombshell that she plans to unveil at the end of the show, which causes the rest of the cast - paranoid about being embarrassed - to go nuts trying to her from revealing it.

Running Gag: Thomas O'Malley and the Alley Cats from The Aristocats are constantly invited to perform at the House, but something always happens that results in their act being cancelled.

Also "nobody (does X) like Gaston."

Something happening to cause all the guests to leave in a rush, trampling Donald as he tries to stop them.

Aladdin stealing other peoples' bread. One episode combines this with the previous gag by having the audience rush to the exit, with Aladdin at the rear carrying armfuls of bread from the kitchen.

One that comes from a short in Mouseworks and continues into House Of Mouse: people, particularly machines, calling Donald "Duwald" thanks to (intentionally or accidentally) misunderstanding his speech - much to his chagrin.

Mr. Toad's insane driving, which often takes him crashing through the front doors and careening through the club. In one episode he gets in a high speed chase and arrested.

Scenery Censor: In "Salute to Sports", Goofy wrote the lyrics for a song he's singing on cards attached to various part of his body. He removes the clothes that hides these cards (including his Goofy Print Underwear) until the cards are the only thing hiding his dignity.

Chernabog is once seen sitting at a table inside the club, and he's just as nude as in his segment in the film. The table blocks the view, though.

Screw Yourself: Averted when Prof. Von Drake makes an Opposite-Sex Clone of himself as an example of his perfect mate who is "exactly like (him)" in the Valentine's Day episode. They end up getting into a fight because Ludwig gets annoyed with his female clone always finishing his sentences.

Of all the films that were referenced in that show, Alice in Wonderland was referenced the most (33+ characters in all), while Tarzan was referenced the least (only one character, Tantor the elephant appeared).

One of the music numbers has the townspeople from "Beauty And The Beast" in a band as the "Angry Villager People" in a lengthy Village PeopleShout-Out.

Shrunk In The Wash: The episode Car Washers, which ends with Mickey telling Pete that his car shrunk in the wash. Pete is incredulous of this, but then he ends up forced through the car wash and becomes tiny, yelling at Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in a high-pitched voice.

Spanner in the Works: One plot of Pete's was to sabotage the thermostat so that it was unbearably hot, driving the customers out. As Pete goes to gloat and demand the house over, he and Mickey find one last customer: Hades.

Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite the hundreds of Disney characters present, if the plot doesn't revolve around Pete's latest scheme, it's usually got Timon and Pumbaa, Hades, or Jiminy Cricket up front. Likely due to their Ensemble Darkhorse status.

Stock Footage: Crowd applause shots are constantly reused as are a number of shots where Horace is told to "hit it". A lot of the framing scenes of Mickey's House of Villains are made up of stock footage.

StockYuck.Anchovies: In the episode where Goofy had to teach Max how to be a waiter, he sings "Hold the anchovies!" about an order for Ariel.

Sure, Let's Go with That: When Hades tries to court Maleficent, Mickey advises him to try to be nice and more like him to impress her. It doesn't work, but Hades' subsequent rage impresses Maleficent. Mickey delivers An Aesop about being yourself, and Minnie coyly suggests he planned it all along. Mickey hesitates, and invokes this trope.

Thememobile: Several characters who didn't have a vehicle in their movie are given a thematic car in House of Mouse. When Jafar isn't utterly breaking canon by the aforementioned driving-the-Cave-of-Wonders, he has a snake car.

A downplayed example happens in "Daisy's Debut", where Mickey's half of "I'm the Mouse and I'm the Duck" has him mispronounce "pout" as "poot".

Took a Level in Badass: Mickey in House Of Villains. When his usual cheerful diplomatic nature is laughed off by the roster of villains, the mouse finds his old Fantasia wizard hat, and starts throwing fireballs in a Tennis Boss match against Jafar.

Took a Level in Dumbass: Daisy is a lot less intelligent than she was in earlier cartoons. She's gone from level-headed foil of Donald to brain-dead egotistical fangirl.

Took a Level in Jerkass: Uncle Scrooge, compared to his more benevolent previous animated depiction in DuckTales. In general, his depiction here seems to borrow more from his meaner, more antagonistic depiction in his early comic appearances (or his comically exaggerated depiction in Italian comics), to the point that the show's adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days uses him as a full-blown villain.

The Trope Formerly Known as X: The Duck Formerly Known As Donald. The whole incident inspired Mickey to close out the episode as "The Mouse Currently Known As Mickey".

In another episode, Pete performs on stage and is referred to as "The Villain Formerly Known As Peg-Leg Pete."

Unholy Matrimony: There's a Hades/Maleficent episode. Hades wants to impress Maleficent and Mickey gives him advice that only makes the situation worse. But when Hades gets mad at Mickey and stops being nice, Maleficent likes him and the two of them leave together. It ends with Mickey giving the (rather broken) message "Even if you're a bad-tempered lord of the underworld, you should always be yourself!"

The same episode has a great Funny Moment, when Hades emerges from Mickey's dressing room dressed as Mickey, which comes down to a Mickey Mouse hat, a pair of big shoes, big while gloves, and Mickey's red pants. And nothing else!Here.Take a look◊.

Maleficent seems to be a bit of a Disney Villain Dude Magnet in the series; in "Max's Embarrassing Date", she can be seen on a date with Jafar (which doesn't go too well), and in "House of Villains" she flirts with Chernabog, who claims to "love her work".

The Unintelligible: Both Gus Goose and Clara Cluck only communicate via honking and clucking sounds respectively.

Jafar gets his own one, too, and it must be seen to be believed. 5:01 onwards

The House of Villains Halloween Special has one for all the Disney villains: It's our house now!

The Villain Sucks Song: "Mortimer, Mortimer, Mortimer Mouse" in House Of Mouse — was originally a song penned by Mortimer to sing his own praises, but Daisy, Clarabelle and Minnie reworked the lyrics because as they were, the audience was not buying it.

Visual Pun: Happens quite a lot. For example, "The crowd is turning ugly!" (cue cut to Prince Adam turning back into a beast) and two line sketches saying that Mickey is lucky to be "overdrawn" because "We're not done yet!"

What Happened to the Mouse?: Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at The House Of Mouse ends with everyone still snowed in at the House Of Mouse, but at least Donald has "Christmas spirit" now.

Witch with a Capital B: Daisy tries to move some villains to different seats and Hades says "Witch" in this tone. It doubles as Insult Friendly Fire since he's sitting with Jafar, Ursula, and the queen from Snow White.

World of Pun: Aside from being anthropomorphic, the technology in the house seems to run entirely on this. One time, the battery for the main power went dead, until being startled awake by the Minnie and co charging it. Another time, Pete's evil plan revolved around taking money the thermostat owed him until it was broke. Here's another example:

Geppetto: I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. Pinocchio: I slept like a log!

You Say Tomato: The song "I'm the Mouse and I'm the Duck" from "Daisy's Debut".

MouseWorks shorts

Accidental Pervert: Mickey falls into this trope in "Future Mania" after Ludwig Von Drake hooks him up to his future-viewing machine. When he tries to contact Minnie on a viewing monitor, he ends up seeing her in a towel. His attempts to keep Minnie from getting angry only serve to dig himself deeper.

All Just a Dream: The Donald Duck short "Donald's Goofy World" and the Pluto short "Minnie Takes Care of Pluto" both end this way. Donald is revealed to have only dreamed everyone turned into Goofy in the former cartoon while the latter short revealed that Pluto was only dreaming that he went to Hell.

Artistic License – Geography: In "Mickey's Rival Returns", Mickey is flung into the sky where you can see a few states which are labeled... completely wrong. For example, Nevada has New York written on it and New Mexico is labeled as Florida.

Art Shift: Donald briefly turns into a CGI when getting sucked into his computer in "computer.don".

Badly Battered Babysitter: Happens to Donald (and in one House storyline, Mickey) when he has to babysit Shelby the Turtle. Then we have the Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoon "Babysitters"...

Bait and Switch: "How to Be a Waiter" is a perfect example of this trope. The cartoon starts out by showing the lowdown of being a waiter, but it becomes too much for Goofy, and so he shoots for a better career as a movie star, which is pretty much what the cartoon remains about. Ironically, the movie Goofy stars in casts him as... a waiter!

"How to Wash Dishes" does pretty much the same thing, right up to the Book Ends ending, except replace "waiter" with "dishwasher" and replace "being a movie star" with "Goofy going on vacation".

Bittersweet Ending: Minnie finally delivers her pie to Daisy in "Minnie Visits Daisy", but she ends up in jail because she resorted to breaking and entering. On the bright side, the short ends with Minnie throwing the pie into Daisy's face in a rare instance of Daisy getting her comeuppance for obliviously putting her friend through hell.

Canis Latinicus: Goofy, in a biking cartoon, is introduced as "Goofilious Bike-Pedalous".

Cant Get Away With Nothing: Often, especially when it comes to Donald - as usual, the fates punish him for every transgression, overblown or otherwise. A good singular example involves Mickey, however - he finds an envelope on the ground and instead of trying to find the owner he buys a bow for Minnie. Immediately after he finds out that the money was for orphans in order to keep them from being kicked out on the street. Ouch. Hijinks ensue.

The Cat Came Back: The bombs in those "Donald's Dynamite" quickies just won't leave Donald alone.

Closer to Earth: Played straight with Minnie, played with with Daisy - both Donald and Daisy can play the more grounded in their relationship Depending on the Writer, as Donald is impulsive and temperamental while Daisy is childish and often oblivious to others.

Characterization Marches On: All of the characters have specific characterizations for their cartoons, which are consistent in show but somewhat different from what they've had previously. For example...

Come Back My Pet: In "Pluto vs. The Watchdog", Mickey, thinking Pluto is too idiotic to be a watchdog, buys a new dog named Muncy. However, the watchdog is really working with Pete so he can rob Mickey. Pluto saves the day at the end.

Conspicuous CG: The animatronic parrot on the pinball machine in "Mickey's Pinball".

Couch Gag: Donald constantly tries to finish the Mickey MouseWorks title sequence with a display reading "Starring Donald Duck", which always backfires in some way.

Cutaway Gag: In "Mickey's Airplane Kit," and a whole series of them in "Daisy's Big Sale."

Death Is Cheap: The narrator lampshades this in "How to Haunt a House", where he assures Donald and Goofy after they die and become ghosts that they will only remain dead until the cartoon is over.

Episode Title Card: The main ensemble gets faceplates, followed by "A (character's name) cartoon", as in the classic era. Daisy and Minnie each get one for the first time. There's a separate one for episodes shared by the ¡Three Amigos!: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. All of them have corresponding Leitmotifs.

Exact Words: In one Pluto Gets the Paper short, Mortimer tricks Pluto to entering a taxi and tells the driver to take Pluto "to the other side of town and step on it." The taxi moves... just a few feet away and then Pluto gets out. Mortimer soon realizes why; he sent Pluto to "The Other Side of Town" street and "Step on It" lane!

Freudian Excuse: "Mickey and the Color Caper" has the Phantom Blot steal all the colors and turn himself into the Phantom Rainbow because he was apparently forced to wear his black cloak his whole life by his parents.

Gallows Humor: Surprisingly, an example is found in "Organ Donors" where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are hired to bring an organ to a demented toymaker that wants Mickey's heart to bring his doll bride to life.

Mickey: He didn't want to donate an organ! He wanted me to donate my organs!

Goofy: And you're not even done with them.

Gender Equals Breed: Pluto has an Imagine Spot in "Pluto's Penthouse Sweet" where he and the dog he fell in love with have puppies. The boys look like Pluto and the girls look like their mother.

Gilligan Cut: Donald says no to the idea of dressing up like Daisy in "Mickey's Big Break". One clockwise screen wipe later...

Happily Married: Mickey and Minnie at the end of "Around the World in 80 Days". This happens to them again as well as to Donald and Daisy at the end of the adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In all cases, the married couples are clearly happy to be together.

Hate Sink: Mortimer Mouse due to being a Jerkass to Mickey and always trying to steal Minnie from him by making him look bad.

Here We Go Again: After Pluto finally gets Butch the Bulldog to stop being in love with him, "Pluto's Arrow Error" ends with Pluto accidentally using one of the Cupid's arrows he found to make an elephant fall in love with him.

I Lied: The narrator to a Nutcracker special goads Donald into playing the role of the mouse king by saying that he'll win in the end. When he doesn't, the narrator claims to have "made a mistake."

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she often gives everyone else hell, Daisy is shown to actually care about Donald when she appears in his shorts and some of Minnie's shorts featuring Daisy end with Daisy sincerely apologizing to Minnie for giving her problems.

Mortimer Mouse is also a rather unpleasant fellow. Pretty much every short featuring him has him being a complete ass to Mickey and attempting to seduce Minnie.

Karma Houdini: The crazy toy maker from "Organ Donors" does not get any comeuppance for trying to remove Mickey's heart and use it to bring his doll to life. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy just run away from him screaming, leaving him still at large with a chance to steal someone else's organs.

Laser-Guided Karma: Happens to Ludwig von Drake in the short "Future Mania". He has Mickey, Donald, and Goofy hooked up to a machine called the Future Viewer, which is intended to show the three how their lives will be better in the future. His experiment backfires because the improvements in technology actually make their lives worse, with Mickey's vision of the future even ending with Minnie beating him up and breaking up with him. At the end of the short, Mickey and friends get fed up with their torment and hook Ludwig to the machine. Ludwig at first enjoys his experience until his personal duck gynoid becomes clingy and his new car starts to go too fast.

Leitmotif: Everybody who had a cartoon starring them had a "title card" song that doubled as a leitmotif. That's Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Donald/Mickey/Goofy as a team, Minnie and Daisy. Each motif appeared in most cartoons in which they appeared, even if they were not actually starring in them. Other characters also had motifs as well, such as Mortimer and Huey, Dewey and Louie. The title card motifs eventually carried over into House of Mouse.

Mistaken for Murderer: The premise of "Minnie Takes Care of Pluto" is that Pluto is convinced by his shoulder devil that Minnie intends to kill him. This is not helped when Pluto believes that Minnie is trying to poison him when she attempts to feed him and later assumes she intends to bury him alive when she starts digging a hole for a plant.

Musical Nod: The general theme to Mouseworks (which recurred in many of the shorts) is actually a rearrangement of the classic Disney song "Minnie's Yoo Hoo," making this one of the few songs used in Mouseworks itself that was a nod to a previous one.

Mythology Gag: In "How to Ride a Bike", the narrator refers to Goofy as Mr. Biker, which is similar to how the short Motor Mania had the narrator refer to Goofy's characters as Mr. Walker and Mr. Wheeler.

In the cartoon "Pluto's Seal Deal", Mickey mentions to Pluto to not have another incident with him saying at the end "No firetrucks and no news crew."

This is also used in "Daisy's Big Sale" when Minnie reminds Daisy that every time she helps her with her wild schemes, it always ends badly. We then see flashbacks of Minnie and Daisy being in full-body casts, getting arrested, and falling into wet cement, with no explanation given as to how those events happened to the girls.

Both shorts featuring the Phantom Blot imply that he already encountered Mickey and his friends before. "Mickey and the Color Caper" has Mickey immediately realizing that the Phantom Blot is the one making the colors disappear, while "Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot" has the Blot state that Mickey and his friends have met him again for the last time.

Not What It Looks Like: Minnie and Daisy come home to see both Mickey and Donald cross dressing while Goofy (with his pants down) takes their photo in "Mickey's Big Break".

Overly Long Gag: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy drinking water by taking long sips in "Housesitters".

Potty Emergency: A part of the plot of "Housesitters", where Pete, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are hired to housesit for two hillbilly families who are feuding over an outhouse. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy do not get into conflict with Pete until all four of them have to go to the outhouse at the same time; Mickey, Donald, and Goofy having to pee after drinking a lot of water and Pete apparently ready to read a newspaper while doing his business.

Recycled Premise: A good number of shorts fall under the premise of "Mickey, Donald and Goofy are X. Hilarity Ensues", where X is a job such as being painters or car washers or whatnot, complete with almost identical opening scenes. Lampshaded when the jobs get ridiculous ("Organ Donors", anyone?), and subverted when their job goes Off the Rails.

Also, there's a fair amount of "How To X" starring Goofy, which were in turn recycled from even earlier goofy cartoons. And "Donald's Dynamite", where Donald Duck is threatened by Cartoon Bombs appearing out of nowhere at inopportune moments.

And "Pluto Gets The Paper", where Pluto always gets into some crazy adventure while trying to retrieve the newspaper for Mickey.

Remember the New Guy: The Phantom Blot only appeared in two shorts, but both of his appearances implied that he had already been menacing Mickey and his friends for quite some time.

Sex Bot: The short "Future Mania" alludes to this. After Mickey accidentally sees Minnie in a towel, Minnie accuses him of leaving her for a mousedroid, which Ludwig von Drake then reveals to be a shapely mouse gynoid. When Mickey, Donald, and Goofy get fed up with Ludwig's future viewing machine for making their lives a wreck, Ludwig comments on how much fun he will have after he ends up with a duck version of the mouse gynoid.

Shaggy Dog Story: Mickey and Donald go to the trouble of photographing themselves in drag to replace a picture of Minnie and Daisy they accidentally broke in "Mickey's Big Break", but the short ends with Daisy tossing the picture aside and claiming that she and Minnie hated that old picture.

Sound Effect Bleep: Goofy shouting at an umpire uses his air horn to censor out his own (supposedly) foul language in "How to be a Baseball Fan".

Split-Screen Phone Call: In "Mickey's Big Break", Mickey pushes the split screen off while Goofy shouts in surprise at being shoved off.

Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons often boil down to Mickey getting the focus while Donald and Goofy are the sidekicks. Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot a good example as Mickey is really the only one who moves the plot along. This could be seen as a subversion from the Classic Disney Shorts, were the mouse was almost absent in favor of Donald and Goofy's antics.

The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Mickey tries to call Minnie, but the recording says that all the lines are busy. Mickey gets upset, but the recording not only tells him to not yell, but to not smash the phone.

Totem Pole Trench: Huey, Duey and Louie want to get on a ride in a theme park that Donald is guarding and says they're too small for. In one scene Donald sees a very tall woman wobbling about and approaching the ride. Donald stops the "woman" and rips off her dress to find she's just a really tall now naked unbalanced woman. Donald then gets punched in the face.

Urine Trouble: Hinted at in "Minnie Takes Care of Pluto", when Pluto's punishment in Hell is to be trapped inside a fire hydrant. A Doberman begins sniffing at the hydrant and the scene pans out to show hundreds of other Dobermans waiting in line.

In "Organ Donors", the toy maker explains to Mickey that he needs an organ (aka innards) after he explains this, Mickey exclaims that he has a screw loose. Then we see that the machine has a screw loose, which is then screwed tight.

In "Donald's Pool", Donald yells at Horace Horsecollar for horsing around, informs Pluto that no doggy paddling is allowed, and yells at some chickens that no chicken fights are allowed.

One of the recipes Mickey tries in "Mickey Tries to Cook" is putting everything into a casserole. After putting together all the food he used before, he then adds a kitchen sink.

Wanting Is Better Than Having: Happens in "Pluto's Penthouse Sweet", when Pluto finally gets alone with the dog he fell in love with, but realizes that Mickey would be miserable without him. Things get worse when the dog refuses to let Pluto leave.

Wholesome Crossdresser: In "Mickey's Big Break", Mickey and Donald use the fact that they're only a few Tertiary Sexual Characteristics away from being Minnie and Daisy's twins in order to replace a picture that they ruined. Donald doesn't get it right the first time, though, because his first attempt at looking like Daisy has hair and breasts larger than Daisy's! Mickey doesn't fare as well either, having a floppy ribbon bow and the wrong kind of shoes. Their second attempts hit much closer to home.

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